Shares in Danish soccer club jump 280 pct ahead of UEFA game

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

COPENHAGEN, July 30 (Reuters) - Shares in Danish soccer club Aalborg Boldspilklub jumped as much as 280 percent on the day of a crucial UEFA Champions League qualifying round match which could transform the small team’s fortunes, traders said.

Aalborg, which won the Danish Cup last season for the first time in its history and topped the league for the first time since 2008, will play its first qualifying round match against Dinamo Zagreb later on Wednesday at home, in northern Jutland.

“The prices that the shares are traded at are crazy at the moment,” a Danish trader said. “If they can go through to the group stage, they will get some money, but it is pure speculation and pure madness.”

Aalborg is seeking to raise 75.5 million Danish crowns ($13.6 million) from a sale of new shares and trading of those rights began on Wednesday, fuelling interest in the stock.

Investors can opt to buy 17 new shares for each share they hold as of next Monday for a price of 0.30 Danish crowns, against a current price of 1.55 Danish crowns.

Within the first hour and a half of trading on the Copenhagen exchange, the volume of trades, at just over a million Danish crowns, amounted to four times the daily average, according to local business wire Ritzau Finans. That volume almost doubled an hour later, according to Reuters data.

Rights issues normally lead to lower share prices as the shares are diluted but a successful issue could also bolster a small or struggling company by showing investors have confidence and are willing to give it capital.

Aalborg would receive 2.1 million euros ($2.8 million) if the team beats Croatia’s Zagreb in the third qualifying round and reaches the playoffs.

If it gets to the group stage of Europe’s top club competition, it will gain at least 8.1 million euros.

That would be a huge boost for a club which made only 73 million Danish crowns, or 9.8 million euros, in revenues last year. ($1 = 5.5644 Danish Crowns) ($1 = 0.7462 Euros) ($1 = 5.5646 Danish Crowns) ($1 = 5.5640 Danish Crowns) (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; writing by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Keith Weir)